Game Notes (MBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (1/3/15)

Final Score
NCC 78, IWU 72

Game Summary
A tight and fairly chippy game followed the women's comeback heroics as the Cardinals (11-1, 1-0) locked into a tight battle and saw leading scorer Charles Rosenberg get in some early foul trouble. The Titans (8-4, 0-1) had similar trouble with one of their leaders and the teams had to find other players to step up. Both sides managed to keep it a tight ball game, with the Cardinals taking the biggest lead at four points late in the half, while Wesleyan stayed within a basket otherwise, going into halftime with a 36-35 Cardinal lead. The Titans pushed to take a couple small leads early in the second half, but their last was a 46-43 edge about five minute in. The Cardinals went on a mini rally to retake the lead and maintained it within a couple baskets for a few minutes before opening up a ten point lead. Wesleyan pulled to within two at 72-70 with a minute to play, but timely free throw shooting put the game away for the Cardinals.

Key Stats

• Jack Burchett (NCC): 9-16 FG, 7-8 FT; 25 pts, 5 reb (1 off), 4 ast. With Rosenberg in foul trouble much of the game (he only played 15 minutes), Burchett took over the major scoring duties in the paint. A 9-16 line isn't bad, but what really impressed me was his free throw shooting. He shot about 29 percent from the line as a freshman, then after a year off improved to 41 percent, then 47 percent last year. His 87 percent night last night bumps him up to 50 percent for the season.
• Brandon White (NCC): 1-3 FG, 2-2 FT; 4 pts, 7 reb (5 off), 2 ast. White is only 6'3", but in the land of a bunch of giants, he led all rebounders, and was a key part of the Cardinals getting 13 second chance points. You need someone to do the dirty work, and he did a great job of it last night.
• Jordan Nelson (IWU): 5-11 FG (4-8 3PT); 14 pts, 1 reb, 3 ast. With the Titans' leading scorer in foul trouble, the Titans had to turn to their bench for scoring, and Nelson led the way. He was lethal from deep. Two of his threes came during Wesleyan's late rally from down 11, one to start the rally and the other to make it a two point game.

Around the CCIW

• Augustana 73 (11-1, 1-0), @Carthage 42 (4-7, 0-1)
• @Elmhurst 83 (11-1, 1-0), Wheaton 75 (7-5, 0-1)
• Millikin 77 (6-6, 1-0), @ North Park 67 (8-3, 0-0)

Final Thoughts
Honestly (and I find myself saying this a lot lately), the officiating was pretty bad, but it was bad both ways. There was a stretch before the Titans' final comeback where the Titans got some pretty bad calls go their way, but the many Titans fans that infiltrated Merner were also upset many times at the calls, to the point where allegedly one of them dropped an F-bomb on a ref during a timeout (I didn't hear it, but someone else at the table did). Even so, despite all the fouls and all the free throws that were shot late, the Cardinals took care of business. They're going to rise in the ranking from #21, while Illinois Wesleyan will definitely falter a little bit from their spot at #9.

The men begin a two game road trip, traveling to Decatur to take on Millikin before next Saturday's double header at our greatest rival in Wheaton. They'll be back home on Wednesday the 14th to take on an Augustana team that's ranked second in the nation.